Democratic Sentinel, Volume 2, Number 12, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 May 1878 — The Negro Exodus. [ARTICLE]

The Negro Exodus.

The exodus of the first ship-load of negroes from Charleston, S. C., to Liberia marks a curious and interesting episode in the history of the black race in this country, and as the trip of the Azor is only the prelude of many more to follow the 250 persons who constituted her passengers representing 1,000,000 more who will follow them if they can get the passage money, it is worthy of some consideration. This emigration fever is not of sudden origin, nor is it confined to South Carolina. The desire to go back to Africa is as strong in some of the districts along the coast as ever was the feeling of the Irish people to come over here, and in every part of the South the colored people, especially the poor and unemployed, are casting longing eyes to the land of promise. If they had the means, hundreds of thousands would leave as fast as vessels could be obtained to carry them. At one time Frederick Douglass, their principal advocate, was in favor of acquiring Hayti to the extent of establishing a protectorate over the island and colonizing it with the surplus blacks of the South, who would enjoy in their new home the protection of our laws and industrial and domestic advantages which they have thus far failed to acquire in this country. As there is no prospect, however, that such a protectorate will be established, they have turned their faces toward Liberia, which is a quasi-Ameri-can colony, largely under the control and influence of American colonization societies. —Chicago Tribune